In photolithography in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, a resist film is formed on a surface of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a wafer) which is a substrate, and subsequently the resist film is exposed. This exposure is carried out by relatively moving a mask opened along a circuit pattern with respect to the surface of the wafer and intermittently irradiating the wafer with light through the mask. After the exposure, a developer is supplied to the wafer to form a resist pattern.
Incidentally, with the progress of miniaturization of a critical dimension (CD) of the resist pattern, uniformity of the CD needs to be improved in each portion of the plane of the wafer. In this regard, a developer nozzle may be configured to have an opposing surface that faces the surface of the wafer and a discharge port opened toward the surface of the wafer in the opposing surface, the developer nozzle is moved along the surface of the wafer under rotation in a state where a liquid collection portion formed by discharging the developer is brought into contact with the opposing surface, and the liquid collection portion spreads over the entire surface of the wafer, thus performing a developing process. In such a method, the developer flows due to the movement of the developer nozzle which is in contact with the liquid collection portion and the rotation of the wafer. As such, the developer spreads while being stirred. This enhances the uniformity of the concentration of the developer and improves the uniformity of the CD.
However, after the liquid collection portion of the developer is spread over the surface of the wafer, the developer nozzle is lifted to be away from the surface of the wafer and moves away from the liquid collection portion. In this case, there may be a case in which a liquid droplet of the developer contributes to form the liquid collection portion adheres to the opposing surface. Thereafter, the liquid droplet drops onto the surface of the wafer, which may result in deterioration in the uniformity of the CD or cause development defects.